Stratos 2033
by Carlos68
Summary: In the year 2018, the IS academy was never the same during its pre-war glory in 2013. Without the appearance of the IS, every student and representative resorted to violence and politics. Before long, the IS academy was turned into both a home and a war zone. But there can only be one person who can change the tide of the war. Rated T for now until further information.
1. Prologue 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Infinite Stratos or Metro 2033**

**Prologue: Part 1**

-0-

My name is Ichika Orimura, I was born in 1996 in Japan but not in the country itself, a different place that all taught students that were all girls; the IS academy. Five years ago it almost bore the brunt of a nuclear attack on my homeland, but it only lived to survive from EMP shockwaves from the intercepted missiles from the sky. Speaking of homeland, its funny how I call it home but I have never seen any other true boy step foot onto this strange super school besides me.

I now lived on the island of the IS academy but I have not always lived there, I was born in Tokyo and I was mainly a city boy before this so I had a bit of an idea of how advance the IS technology was, even if I didn't when I first came to the academy. In its pre-wars (2013 and before), the IS and its academy represented the pride and glory of how advance humanity has gotten. At first, it was extremely awkward and difficult for me when I first arrived on the IS campus. But now, I was able to blend in with everyone and make a lot of friends and even meet my childhood friends again after a long time. There were 5 friends that I had seen them as important; Houki, Cecilia, Rin, Charlotte, and Laura. Even though I was very tense around them, everything turned out to be somewhat all but good times. There were bad and good times during the pre-war years; but the war had torn everybody apart.

Peace in the IS academy didn't last for long after the EMP attacks. With no lights, no holographic equipment, and no IS units, panic and corruption began to boil among almost everybody and the Representatives. I was almost corrupted and filled with panic until I sided with the teachers and superiors in an attempt to restore control and peace. There was only one option for the corruption to stop; call for help.

In Mid-February 2013, the teachers got news that there are backup electrical generators located on the city outside of the IS academy's island that can only be accessed by monorail. The teachers were trying every attempt to calm everybody down as the people in the city outside of the academy try to activate the backup generators somehow outside of the IS academy island. If the backup generators can be reactivated, then we can be able to call for help from NATO or the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Forces to help us. That's what everybody believed in from the teachers and they all hoped that everything would be alright. But that either…didn't last for long. The corruption was near its ignition point.

By Early April 2013, the students finally lost patients. It all erupted into panic and corruption quite quickly. Without the IS unit, then what was the use of staying in the academy, everyone went and did their own thing on their own agenda. All the students and all the Representatives lost interest to learning how the IS works. The only thing they cared now was to survive and on the island of the academy and its city on the island. That was all, and nothing else, the IS no longer became important to every single student and Representative. The teachers and superiors were overpowered and they were all either turned into forced labor workers or operators, while most of them were executed by the students. My older sister Chifiyu was one of the few adults forced as a worker for the students.

From this day, I marked this day as _**Oshoku no shinpan**_ (aka, Judgment of Corruption). The fate of the IS academy changed...forever. 4 out of 5 of my friends that I used to call important, had became no longer. My friends turned against each other, they all went their different ways. They didn't want each other to control on another. It drew into a forming of factions that were unnecessary for this all to happen. The only one who I had never forgotten or had turned against everyone was Charlotte Dunois. But she too went her own ways, but into a conquest for the freedom of the IS academy.

Unfortunately, a few weeks after Judgment of Corruption, I abandoned everyone. I abandoned both my childhood and best friends, and I abandoned my purpose for my appearance in the IS academy. I was lonely, and I never felt the same as I did during pre-war times. The good thing was I wasn't dense as I used to be…I was a lot more relaxed and I was beginning to enjoy my life again. But at the same time, I was feeling a weight of sorrow on my shoulders for abandoning all my friends and everyone. I felt like I wanted to kill myself if I had the chance…but I didn't.

I chose to let go of my past and let it vanish into the nuclear fire somewhere far away in a different world. I was living a new life of no friends or peace; I was now just another lone ranger, a ranger that has been forgotten by the very people that were his friends…

But now, I was already going to get involved in one of the most important events that I must stop to prevent what could be inevitable…war…

-0-

_**March 4**__**th**__** 2018**_

Throughout the entire IS academy island, the academy was all controlled by 5 different factions; _the Federalists, the Britannians, the Communist Republicans, the Vichy Rangers, and the Nazis._

The Federalist controlled the West thus controlling the west area of the city outside of the academy.

The Nobility controls the central area of the academy (including all class areas, the stadiums, the monorail station and the cafeteria).

The Republicans controlled the north and parts of the west, controlling the north area of the city and some of the west parts of the city outside of the academy.

The Rangers secretly control the Southeast making up almost the entire southern area of the city as their territory.

Finally, the Nazis controlled the Northeast and Southeast harbors and the northeast area of the city.

All the factions separated each other by setting up effective makeshift barricades and a handful of strict makeshift checkpoints that prevent anyone from going in or out (unless they were military units going out or back in). All the factions had their different beliefs, lifestyles, strengths, equipment, and attitude.

The Federalist is led by Houki Shinonono. The Federalist is governed as a loose police state which kept the elements of social control and using authoritarianism instead of totalitarianism which brought along with the addition of central authority. However, the social control is more formal than informal in order to prevent the people from feeling too restricted or hated by the government. Additionally, on the other hand of the government, it retains a 4,000 member police force (called the Fedekukai, aka; フェデラリスト国防委員会, or The Federalist Defense Committee) both as the secret police and the armed forces. Having a population of 6,780, the Federalist live almost classless where everyone is poor and the government (40 members) is the only type of people that are rich but it varies depending on each person's usage. Compared to the Republican's militia, the Federalist are better equipped with almost identical matching uniforms that consisted of a cheap copy of the black North Face short sleeved vests, black jeans, and simple black leather kung-fu shoe-like boots for the Fedekukai police. The Fedekukai police are poorly equipped however, usually resorting on martial arts training and being equipped with basic wooden batons because of the lack of machinery needed to properly make enough guns and ammunition. Some special police units are armed with homemade TT-33s or a revolver along with its own ammunition. The Federalist armed forces are better equipped than the police; they are commonly seen with surplus body-armor followed with metal pauldrons, and blue leather military berets. The armed forces use AK74s (and sometimes Saiga-12 shotguns) that they managed to loot off of fallen Republicans. The armed forces train and use their weapons with all their use as possible to lower the chance of losing the weapons to the Republicans again. Despite having fewer units than the Republicans, the Fedekukai are better equipped, better trained, and more organized against the Republican's larger less organized ragtag militia. Their flag is the Blue Japanese Rising Sun.

The Republicans are led by Lingyin Huang. The Republic is governed by the people while Lingyin keeps authority in check with the government's general law and organization. Like Leninist Communist, the people and the worker masses are the ones that control the government's power as to give people freedom of their nation. More like a Chinese version of Leninist Communist in a nutshell. Although this may seem like a 'People's Republic', the Republic has a few lightly-severe flaws within its organization of its military and its other restrictions that followed with people controlling the government's power. Unlike the Federalist's Fedekukai; the Sino Republic has far greater units than out of any government, having more than 15,000 members within its militia altogether. However, one of its major flaws within its militia was its poor quality production of materials that could only produce poor irregular uniforms and modified STENs designed to fire the 5.45x39mm (hence the weapon's name 庶子, which meant _Bastard_ in Chinese). The Militia is poorly equipped; the standard uniform was constantly various. However, the uniform generically ranged from Chinese-style shemaghs, random dark colored jackets, and random jeans or pants. The weapons (besides the庶子) were random too, and some of the weapons were both either homemade or poorly made in makeshift factories. The militia is commonly seen with AK74s, Saiga-12 shotguns and UZIs restrictedly provided by the Nazis' manufacturing. It's completely rare for the militia to wield an advance battle rifle because of both the Nazis' hostile behavior to outsiders and for the Britannian's expensive price tags on its weapons. Another major flaw within the government was its struggling economy that resulted from the Republic's poor trading relationships with the Britannian Nobles. Due to the struggling economy, trade is extremely common through Republican territory. Merchandises all types were sold at prices ranging from 10 rubles to 100,000 rubles. Similar out of the Federalist's people, the Republican People are equivalently poor as a Federalist since the Federalist gets their small payment at the end of the month while the Republicans lacked proper housing for most of the population of 12,000. So conditions in the Republic are much poorer than the Federalist (despite there being more ghettos in Federalist territory). Their flag is the flag of China but with a hammer and sickle replacing the central star on the flag.

The Britannians are led by none other than Cecilia Alcott. Like the name says, the Britannians run on a nobility system that makes the entire population of 6,000 all together to be extremely xenophobic. They're only friendly to the Nazis because the Nazis have an excellent trade relationship along with the Britannians sharing a 600 member secret police force from the Gestapo as their means of security. The Britannians control the central area of the IS academy; all the class areas, all the stadiums, the nonoperational monorail station and the cafeterias. With these areas under their control; the Britannians have access to the best food, the best means for entertainment and media, the most luxurious and proper housing, and reusing the monorail station along with its nearby stores as the center of trade. All that comes at an expensive tax price for every resident that lives within Britannian territory every month. Additionally, everything is almost all expensive as to show off how rich the Britannians are. Britannians are the only faction that supplies pre-war medicine and having access to the IS library archives which allows for the Britannians to have the map of the entire island. It's for also one of the few reasons why the Nazis have an excellent relationship with the Britannians. Finally, unlike all the other factions, the Britannians are the only faction that is not completely threatened by conflict thanks to the brutal secret police keeping crime at an all time low and offering protection to Britannian territory 24/7. Their flag is the British Communist Flag Commission - where it has an algebra compass and book in the center of a modified British Jack Flag.

Now, the Nazis are led by Laura Bodewig. As for Britannians like the name says for itself, the Nazis control everything under Nazism. Following their powerful fascist government, they have access to the entire northeast and southeast harbors and the northeast area of the city. They are by far the 2nd largest faction along with its high tech armed forces of 7,000 members thanks to gaining access to undisturbed pristine machinery within the harbor's unopened shipping containers before the war. Having a population of 10,000 people, the Nazis are completely militaristic through every part of their territory. The words 'high tech' and 'militaristic' is never disregarded. The Nazis are armed with the most advance weapons that came from export along with hand-loading equipment and appliances found in some of the more forbidden containers. To make matters even worse, the Nazis happened to have restored 40% power to the entire harbor. This allowed them to utilize the cranes, operate some of the computerized controls, and be able to open most of the warehouse doors. Despite restoring electricity, the equipment are not as powerful as they used to be during their pre-war years, this in turn means that the machines are slow and on some circumstances; weak. But additionally on the other hand, besides being the only faction to use electricity again, the Nazis were even able to find a handful of operational automobile parts and batteries stored in some of the shipping containers; which this allowed them to create from _Motorrädern_ (makeshift military dirt bikes), Armored Forklifts, _Bahn Panzers_ (Railroad Tanks, being based off of the Panzer 3 and 4s), and so much more. Like typical Nazism, everyone believes that the Nazis are the ultimate race and believe every minority should be eliminated (with the exception of Britannian because of their similar beliefs from nobility). It is rumored that prisoners of war are sent to warehouse prisons known as "Tousers" where they are enslaved, forced to carry out hard labor until they die (especially if you're one of the few remaining men) or are able to pass through an extremely brutal boot camp than out of an average Nazi trooper (if you're a woman). Their flag is the Swastika of the Third Reich from WW2.

Finally, the Vichy Rangers are led by Charlotte Dunois, the only representative that's still friendly. The Rangers secretly control the Southeast making up almost the entire southern area of the city as their territory. Establishing a democracy, the people live free and protected by the over-watching eyes of the Rangers. In order to stay off the radar, the Rangers keep their appearance secret to avoid conflict from every other faction on the Island. As for the people's safety and needs for freedom, the Rangers always makes sure that the population of 20,000 free people never tell anyone else outside of Vichy territory to tell that the Rangers exist. As to keep the Rangers hidden, the people are also to specifically lie about where they came from if they happen to run into anyone from each faction. The Rangers have a tiny force of 100 members – being that the Rangers are a special task force rather than an either attacking or defending army. To make their tiny numbers, the Rangers are sophisticated in operations of stealth, espionage, and assassinations. They wield advance firearms like the Nazis, but the weapons are mostly never used amongst the Rangers as almost every Ranger is sometimes armed with a high-tech composite bow and arrow or mostly a sleek switchblade or knife. They are rather neutral and they passively deny outsiders from entering into Vichy territory as to keep peace and prevent any poverties, or increased crime rates in Vichy territory. And unlike all the other factions; the Rangers disallow using the level 2 and 3 crime punishments as to prevent the people from feeling restricted and confined to brutality amongst the security. Establishing a somewhat Miranda act, this further increased freedom and made handling criminals be non-violent. Apparently, to keep themselves off the map, the Rangers never show their flag to show their territory.

With all five factions running on their own beliefs, ideas, and lifestyles, they all run on common words and laws. Originally made by the Nobility, their ideas influenced the Federalist, the Republicans, and the Nazis to establishing their governments with the Nobility's rules. These are the most important examples below:

-0-

**Commonly used words**  
Excise – Kill (Everyone utilizes this, except for the Rangers, the Republicans and the Federalist)  
Detainment – Jail  
Detain - Put in jail  
Ration - A package of food, water, and 50-100 Rubles slips.  
Rubles/Rubles slip – Money (printed black and white Yen bills)  
Cauterize - Keep to non-vital shots for takedowns or detainments.  
Expunge - See Excise.  
ACA - Autonome Curfew Act, every citizen must head to the nearest building by 10:00pm and wait until the police/military allow for everyone to come back out at 6:00am.  
Lethal – Every army's way of referring to their weapons.  
Loyalist - Any person/citizen who's loyal to any of the faction's governments.  
Totenköpfe – A common Nazi slang used amongst almost everyone as to describe any police unit.  
GO - Government Official  
Anti-Citizen - Any citizen who is showing any signs of Resistance against either faction.

**CCaC official crime list**

Level one  
Punishments for these crimes include warnings, beatings, and detainments.

Motion violation - Running or jumping  
Audio Violation (Cursing) - Saying any curse word.  
Level 1A trespassing - Going into any other citizen's private property without their permission  
Theft 1A - Stealing of low-level items. Be it an orange or a TV, it's still a crime.

Level two  
Punishments include beating + detainment, medium-cycle detainment, or death

Contraband 1A - Possession of any non-issued or stolen clothes or food.  
Level 1B trespassing - Going into any restricted City areas of any faction  
Assault 1A - Attempted/successful assault of any citizen  
Misuse of Technology - Misuse of any technology  
Anti-Factionist - Putting up any anti-propaganda, or speaking anything against any faction.  
Manslaughter - Accidental killing of another citizen [Will likely result in death, sometimes in medium-cycle detainment]  
Possession - Possessing any illegal substance or contraband

Level three  
Punishments include long-cycle detainment, indefinite-cycle detainment, death, and torture.

Contraband 1B - Possession of any hallucinogenic drug, recreational drug, weapons, or unauthorized technology.  
Level 1C trespassing - Going into the government buildings without a Unit present, or going into the military headquarters without consent of either entity  
Assault 1B - Attempted/successful assault of any Loyalist, Citizen, Police unit, military personnel, or Government officials.  
Murder 1 - Attempted/successful murder of any Loyalist, Citizen, Police unit, military personnel, or Government officials.  
Contraband 2B - Possession of any weapon, controlled substance, or stolen food items  
Breaking and entering - Unlawful entry to any building  
Civil Unrest - Attempted/successful to start Civil Unrest [Riots, uprising, etc] anywhere. All parties involved in Unrest will be detained and questioned. Starter of unrest, if identified, will have his or her civil status revoked, and will receive Anti-Citizen status.

-0-

Now why is everyone against each other? Well, let's start with the Federalist and the Republicans. The Federalist are defending against the Republican militia because the Republicans are not only fighting for the Federalist's better housing, but also the Republicans hate the Federalist due to their anti-communist attitude. The relentless attacks of the Republicans have been lasting since 2015, and it only seems the Federalist are getting stronger and so as for the Republican forces getting bigger but more poor from their approximate death toll of an average of 2,000 Republican Militia troops die every year. Compared that to the Federalist's lost of 10 or 20 Fedekukai Police units and 30 or 70 Federalist military units every year being lost to Republican attacks. Despite getting cheap but effective weapons supplied from the Nazis, the Nazis cannot support the Republicans because of the opposition between Communist and Nazi beliefs. The only thing that prevents the Republicans and the Nazis from killing each other is the Britannians making aggravating peacekeeping pacts between the opposing factions in order to keep peace even though the Britannians are xenophobic to any outsiders. With Britannia being an aggressive peacekeeper, the Britannians are the only ones that are preventing a miniature great war from happening with every faction.

But there was a snag to Britannia's peacekeeping acts; the Nazis are an expanding militaristic faction, and they are demanding permission from the Britannians to move across their territory in order to take on the Federalist and claim it as Nazi territory to hopefully stop the Federalist's resistance against the Republicans. Unfortunately, as the Nazis mustn't forget; the Nazis are sharing a third of their entire Gestapo to Britannia to maintain security throughout the entire Britannian controlled IS academy. With Britannia's refusal, and even speaking up a ridiculous excuse of '_not turning their territory into a battlefield_'; the relationship of Britannia and the Nazis will falter and the Britannians will lose the Gestapo as their only means of a security force, and possible be annihilated by the Nazis. But at the same time, the Nazis will lose 40% of their economical wealth from Britannia's trade if they break up their relationship with the Britannians. With only one option, the Nazis turn their attentions to the south, in the directions of the territory secretly controlled by the Vichy Rangers. This is where the story begins.

Reversing back into the events of a 2 week time-lapse, all the events will be unfolded to exactly what will happen. Will another war be created, or will it be prevented?

-0-

**Author's notes: Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy an interesting apocalyptic concept I added into an Anime like this. **

**Thanks for reading, **_**if you guys have something you think I should add in anything into the story please either PM me or leave a review. Until then, farewell.**_


	2. Prologue 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Infinite Stratos or Metro 2033**

**Prolouge: Part 2**

-0-

Life was never easy on the Island, but it was all but our home. There was comfort in our routine, in seeing the same people day after day. But since the threat of the Republicans and the Nazis escalated, war ruled the Island. I had just turned twenty two…and I could've never had imagined what would follow on the morning that I would meet an old friend again…

-0-

_**Northeast Federalist Territory, Gotanda Eatery, March 5**__**th**___

On a cloudy fogless morning, Gotanda Eatery was scheduled everyday to close by 9pm. The Eatery's appearance didn't look slightly the same as it used to back in pre-war times. The Eatery's glass panel doors were covered by sheets of wood as to replace the damage of the broken glass. Even the glass windows on the 2nd floor were replaced by horizontal wooden shutters. As for the doors, the word plates on the door were crudely moved up on the roof between the 2nd and the 1st floor to prevent vandalism as people enter in and out of the Eatery. Fortunately, despite the crude replacement of wood as an alternative to the damage of glass, the exterior was literally the same as it was during pre-war times.

But at the same time, the interior however was not quite the same either. Although the tables and chairs inside the Eatery are undamaged, the kitchen was not the same without electricity. The kitchen's stoves were modified in being big wood burners since their ovens gave more than enough space for a bunch of small logs inside to cook all four burners on the stove. On the other hand in the kitchen, since everyone still had working plumbing but not as sanitary as it used to be, cleaning dishes and utensils had to be washed the old fashion way without the aid of a dishwasher (since dishwashers require both water and electricity). This caused business to be rather slow in the Eatery, but it was mainly slowed down because of the Federalist's policy of paying workers their payment at the very end of the month. Added with typical low payments and poor conditions in Federalist territory, business was slow every day. Due to all those factors, the Eatery only gets from 90 to 220 people a day which is sometimes not enough to run the business with enough tips to keep the Eatery clean and running. Additionally following slow business, the business was hard since it was hard to keep the Eatery almost cleaned daily.

But today however was different.

-0-

**Dan's POV**

Dan Gotanda was in his room and he was at his desk that was to the right of his bed and he finishing up the bills on the restaurant's pluming. He was almost the same as pre-war times; it was just the stress everyday from the Federalist's laws and slow business that changed his attitude to the new world. He and his sister Ran Gotanda have been keeping the Eatery open even since after the EMPs detonated and ruined the world. Running the business turned fairly easy for him since he became smarter over the past 5 years after the EMPs detonated. So work was easy from him, and this relieved Ran as well as she was managing the chiefs in the kitchen while Dan did the cleaning with her and the calculations in math that was important to business.

Dan was dressed as if he were the same in his pre-war times. He wore blue jeans which were very common from small kiosks and even the biggest store available, he wore one of his blank dark blue T-shirts with a leather vest zipped up completely to his collar, and he was wearing black socks while his black converse sneakers were set to the right side of his bed. Dan was in some way to appear clean like pre-war times. His smooth red hair was cut into a half flattop unlike his long hair he had during pre-war times. Finally, he still wore his black bandana on his forehead like usual since pre-war times. Dan is pretty much almost the same as of his pre-war appearance.

It was 9:31pm and it was an hour before he had to go to bed and finish up getting the Eatery ready for business with his sister. But unusually however, there was a knock on his bedroom door instead of the door being usually kicked or slammed open by Ran Gotanda. Because of a usual action out of the ordinary day, Dan shrugged a confused face for a brief second before he took his eyes off the finished bill and turn his attention behind the knocking on his door. He was taken by surprise that there was knocking on his door. Could've he locked by accident? That's not usually the case since his sister kicks or slams the door open.

Caught with confusion, he got out of his desk chair while putting his pencil down and he slipped on his converse shoes. Without a further ado of any second thought since he was confused, he passed his bed and approached his bedroom door the left of the bed. As he was almost going to stop in front of the door, he opened his bedroom door and he was surprised to see nobody in front of the door.

Before having the intention to close the door and fix himself up shortly for bed, there was a paper note on the door that was the size of a short rectangular sheet of paper. He took the note off his door and read it as it said _'We have a special visitor tonight. Fix yourself up and come down stairs. Ran Gotanda.'_

"Oh great." Dan muttered to himself partially annoyed before ranting casually to himself. "The Eatery is about to close and there's a visitor today? Just lovely isn't it? Well, let's get ourselves fixed up." So he folded the note sideways then vertically and put the note into his right pocket before going back to his desk in his bedroom and turning off the oil lantern that dimly lit his bedroom and left his bedroom again and shutting his door firmly.

Heading over to the bathroom just down the hall to the right, in the opposite direction of the stairs, he went into the bathroom since the door was already open and turned on the oil lantern located at the left corner of the counter at the edge of a wall. The lantern lit up most of the bathroom with the shower being almost left in the dark behind Dan. He turned on the faucet to warm water and washed his face briefly but properly without getting his bandana wet. Before getting out, he sat down on the toilet to the right of the counter and took the extra time to tighten his laces on his shoes and going back to the sink and washing his hands with the bar soap (since finding liquid soap was sometimes rare).

Nonchalantly rushing out the bathroom, Dan turned off the lantern and went down the hall towards the stairs passing his sister's bedroom from the left on the way to the stairs. Upon heading downstairs, the low chattering and talking of the cooks finishing up in the kitchen filled the restaurant. Dan stopped at the end of the hallway upon going downstairs and looked for his younger sister. He was about to be annoyed when one of the cooks greeted him "Dan, still awake I see. Are you trying to find Ran? Well, she's outside near the entrance; she seems to be talking to an old friend of hers."

"Ah, geez." Dan muttered with annoyance. This wasn't what his sister was supposed to be doing at this time. Talking to a friend while getting the Eatery ready for business tomorrow? That's unacceptable, but what the heck, something like this happens rarely. But with nothing he could resistance against except for annoyance and partial anger building up, Dan gives the cook a command before heading to the entrance "Get back to your post and finish up what you're doing, I'll be right back."

Without giving a chance to listen to the cook but not at least walking away rudely, the cook otherwise replied as Dan walked towards the entrance "Yes sir." Dan temporally paid no attention as he walked pass all the tables and went outside out front. Opening the front doors that had wooden panes covering the areas that previously had glass, Dan went outside into the night and was surprised to see her younger sister greeting to an old friend as they were sitting at a bench near a pre-war newspaper dispenser. Still slightly annoyed, he was stopped as a greeting from Ran blurred towards Dan "Hey Dan." She chuckled a bit before Dan muttered unintelligible in a bit of annoyance "Jesus."

Ran's friend looked so familiar to an old friend to him. Ran's friend was a young man that was just as tall like Dan (who was 5'9), he had short black hair that was somewhat combed in a straight back manner and which is parted in the middle, and has dark brown eyes. Ran's friend also wore some clothing that was heavily similar out of the pre-war IS uniform; the pants was a tight khaki with the red lining going down the sides along with the lower area of the pants being completed with short brown boots and khaki puttees, there was a khaki tunic that had bellowed hip pockets and the tunic had sleeves that extended over the elbows along with a woodland schemed pre-war armor vest that had a neck guard extending almost exactly along the cheekbones. There was also the bit of the folded buttstock of a G36C hanging out from behind the young man's right shoulder as Dan noticed the man's familiar face if he can recall.

As Dan approached his sister in a calm manner in order to not alarm her, Ran told her friend who her older brother was "Issak, meet my older brother, Dan." Ran's friend or Issak as his name finally, greeted Dan as he extended his right arm and gave the shaking of Dan's hand in a young voice "Guten Abend."

In response to the young man's greeting in German, Dan replied in his best German with a welcoming tone "Sie Auch."

After greeting the young man, Ran gave a hand gesture for Dan to sit down on the bench with them and Dan sat down to the left of Ran before she continued with Issak. "So Issak, what's happening outside of the Federalist territory now these days?"

"Not much, most of what I hear is about the Communist and the Britannians, and the growing infestation of wild dogs in the ghettos here lately." Issak replied as his tone grew into a bit of disgust at the end of his reply. There was a brief silence before Issak remembered something "Dan, I met a trader selling old postcards of Rio de Janeiro. Ran proposed this as a favor." Issak reached into right lower pocket and got out a pre-war postcard of Rio de Janeiro and kindly handed the card to Dan. When Dan looked at the card, it showed Christ the Redeemer posing its back at Rio De Janerio and the beach below in the background of the postcard.

While being momentarily astound by the postcard, Ran continued her chat with Issak "These are not the usual issues in the ghettos. This is something else…something worse."

Issak gave a partially grunted 'hmm' before adding "Dogs, as usual. Well, whatever the hell they are, they're nasty little pest that wouldn't quit."

Ran added with a bit of quota "Yeah I mean wouldn't you think that the people in the ghettos would've already by now…"

She wasn't able to finish as there was a distant sound of a brief machine burst that was quickly followed by fast rifle burst that came a second after the machine gun burst. But after the rifle burst, another machine burst erupted and stopped shortly before the fainted distant shouting of Fedukukai units filled the area. Along with the chattering in the distance, there was the escalating movement of trucks in the distance that were responding to the inevitable Republican attack.

With this sudden intro to a Republican attack, Ran, Issak, and Dan stood up to look to their right into the direction of the gunshots. It wasn't long before the staff members from the kitchen peaked out from the doors and try to figure out what was happening. There was a brief silence before Ran was about to talk again until there was a familiar gunshot burst of an AK74 in the distance that broke the silence and distant chattering.

As another burst from an AK74 goes off before multiple other gunshots are fired, it becomes real evident that it's a Republican attack when gunshots nearby of the Eatery start going off. The gunshots going off near the Eatery were AK74s, both from the Federalist and Republican troops. But however, this was beginning to stir panic amongst the workers and Ran and Dan as Issak took his G36C on his back and unfolded the stock while keeping the carbine pointed down.

Before long, unexpectedly, multiple gunshots began to get bounce right off of the buildings across the street of the Eatery. The gunfire itself was getting closer as the shots zeroed in on the chain link fence separating the Eatery from the streets. With Dan and Ran growing panic, Dan is the first to take action as Issak takes cover against the hedges. Before Dan could say anything, Ran gave Issak a command "Issak, keep those communist rats away from the Eatery until we can get our guns."

With a nod, Issak was already firing away at the incoming Republican militia while still taking cover along the hedges. During the opening moments of the shootout, Dan and Ran went back inside the Eatery and went to find their weapons upstairs. As Ran went upstairs, Dan stopped briefly to tell the staff members in the kitchen "Get upstairs, it's too dangerous to stay down here."

Even with no reply, the staff members followed Dan as he ran upstairs shortly behind Ran. As Dan went upstairs and the last staff member came upstairs, Dan gave another command to the workers before he headed into his bed/office "Shut the door and keep it closed until me and Ran get our weapons." With no further reply, the last worker at the end of the hall shut the door and purposely locked the door while holding the door back to prevent anyone from opening it.

With that taken care of Dan went into his bedroom again and went to his closet while the oil lamp on his desk was still off. He opened his closet door that was located to the right in front of his bed and it revealed his clothes that were still hanging up in almost pristine condition since pre-war times. But, underneath the hanging clothes, there a pre-war M16A1 that was leaning in the far left corner of the clothes with no magazine in it. But this M16 was not the same one from pre-war times; it's actually an M16A1 with a wooden buttstock, handguard, and pistol grip. The wood had crude but a black finishing to it that gave it the distinction of the weapon's condition; it's a product stolen from the Republicans and then sold on the Federalist market. And being at least 2 years in storage, the M16 still looked good as new as Dan saw the pre-war looking rifle.

With 7 fully loaded 20 round box magazines leaning against the wall underneath the rifle, Dan crouched down into the closet and took one of the fresh magazines and inserted it into the M16. He took all the magazines and putted most of them in the pockets of his jeans and the rest of them in his vest pockets before pulling back the t-shaped charging handle on the M16 and stood back up out of his closet. Locked and loaded, he went to his wooden panel windows and slid the panel open to the left in front of his desk and saw Issak still fending off the Republican militia. It was already evident of this because of 14 dead militiamen sprawled out dead in their puddles of blood out on the street.

As Issak was in the process of reloading his G36C and was left out in the open at the front of the Eatery as another group of militiamen started coming from the left side of the street, Dan brought the M16's sights up and fired away a long burst at the militiamen. Letting off 11 rounds in the burst, he only managed to kill 2 militiamen as the rest of the 10 militiamen ran off into cover in the buildings across the street of the Eatery. At the same time when Dan killed 2 militiamen, Issak finally finished reloading his G36C and started shooting at the militiamen as some of them were reaching cover.

Killing only 5 militiamen before the remaining 5 militiamen got behind cover behind a small alleyway garbage bin. At that moment, Dan carelessly fired at the garbage bin with the M16 again before the M16 clicked open and with the tiny designation of blood splattered on the wall near the garbage bin. As Dan ducked away from the window as he let the empty magazine dropped and reached for a fresh magazine, the sound of Ran's AK74 erupted from her bedroom next door of Dan. With Issak's G36C firing away at the same time, Ran can barely hear the militiamen dying outside as he inserted a new magazine and released the bolt catch on the left side of the M16 with a click as a sign of the bolt slamming shut.

Ready for action again, Dan stood up again and aimed the M16 down at the alleyway again only to find a dead militiaman lying dead in the alleyway along with another dead militiaman lying face down besides the garbage bin in a pool of blood. With the militiaman group dead, the fight remained silent for a moment before a final array of gunshots in the distance went off. The distant gunshots included the pistol rounds from an UZI and then the ending gunshots of a couple AK74s. In the total time-lapse of the attack, it only last as the usual 6 minutes like typical Republican surprise attacks.

-0-

**Moments Later…**

Dan, Ran, and Issak were outside at this moment after the attack and Issak was checking the militiamen to see if they were actually some terrorist on the loose. But as Dan and Ran wonder around at the carnage while the workers are already heading home, Issak makes a discovery that somehow disappoints him "No terrorist here…just the usual Communist rats."

"Even for an attack like this, this is an unusual small size of a night attack." added Ran with her AK74 slung on her right shoulder as she made a suspicious clue to the number of militiamen "There has to be more than this, because now these days, the Communist don't take kindly to other ideologies."

Dan sniffed slowly and nonchalantly as he complimented with a serious and ponderous tone "Yeah. But who wonders what the Republicans and their Communist ideology have in store - their militia is still pretty weak but gigantic. Being expended like wood in a fireplace."

Issak chuckled a bit before complimenting in return "That's a good way to call the Republican's style of military tactics; using large expendable numbers to overwhelm targets one after another."

"That nails it there – giant numbers." added Ran as she walked back and fourth amongst the dead militiamen as she further continued "That's what makes the Republicans run and fight like rats. Disgusting isn't it?"

"I wouldn't consider disgusting as the word, but more like unmindful since the Republicans haven't change this style of military tactics since 2015." suggested Issak.

"Yeah, I mean wouldn't you think after 2 years of failure that they would change their tactics by then?" asked Dan before actually irking Ran of this question.

"Maybe they already did with this attack being a testing ground for it. But whatever this attack was, this is unusual since the Republicans attack in the daytime when the wild dogs in the ghettos nearby are not out and about." Ran replied somewhat with some annoyance from her older brother's question.

Ran's annoyance quickly transformed into a startled expression as Dan and Issak went into a similar expression as they heard the shouting of the Federalist troops getting closer as their footsteps got louder near the Eatery's vicinity. With only a brief silence, Issak said only one thing in an expressionless manner before he went inside the Eatery "Get back inside you two, the curfew is already taking action 3 minutes early."

As he finished saying his warning, Dan and Ran were already jogging to the doors of the Eatery as Issak followed closely behind them. Being the first to open the door, Dan kept the door open for Issak and Ran before closing it just in time before the Federalist troops showed up onto the street with a Federalist-captured M35 cargo truck following with the troops shining a searchlight throughout the street. While the Federalist troops were outside giving out muffled orders, somebody forgot to close the chainlink fence outside of the Eatery which left Dan in shock in his mind.

Luckily though for Dan, Ran and Issak didn't mention the gate as they were too busy getting upstairs as Dan took out the keys to the doors and locked the door. Not too far behind, he followed Ran and Issak upstairs as the rumbling of the truck faded gradually outside. But before going upstairs, he took notice of the oil lamps still on in the kitchen just before he went upstairs. Quickly, he went behind the counter of the kitchen and went to turn off the lamps before heading upstairs.

With the Eatery in darkness and closed, he caught up with Ran and Issak upstairs as they were heading into Ran's bedroom. Once Dan got inside Ran's bedroom, he saw Ran and Issak peeking through the sleet of Ran's wooden window pane, watching the Federalist outside chattering about the dead militiamen out on the street. Silently but not imperceptible, Dan took a peek over Ran's left shoulder at the chatter outside with the Federalist troops.

As he took notice, Dan was able to peek in time to hear one of the troops saying "Mostly everybody here in this region of Federalist territory has already fled by now. We got to keep moving to get everybody out of here before the next wave of Republicans comes."

Before hearing another confrontation, Ran quietly shut her wooden window pane before Issak mentioned the worst that Ran and Dan can fear "Already fled huh? This is awkward."

Ran had her right hand on her forehead as she walked about of her bedroom as she spoke the worst fear that she and Dan could face "More than just awkward, we have to flee and abandon our business and home here if the troops say that there is another wave of Republicans."

She sighed in trepidation before she continued "If me and Dan flee, we could lose our business, our home, and our other means of survival out in this world. We can even lose our lives once we flee out of this region of Federalist territory."

Leaving a brief silence as Ran walked about slowly, Issak quickly took notice and tried to mention her condition "What's happened to you Ran?" This stopped Ran in her tracks as Issak continued "You can go like lambs to the slaughter – I'll hang on to whatever life I got with teeth and claws. Even if it takes a few broken bones, I'll take more than hundreds of Communist with me to hell."

Shocked to what Issak said, Dan chimed in and justified himself about the worldly conditions in order to prevent Ran from erupting into anger "You think you're some old movie cowboy? Have a look, Issak. Hundreds of other people like you want to stop the Communist and the Nazis too, but you can only do so much to change the tide of the war right now."

"Old sayings and old mottos," resisted Issak as he continued before slapping the back of his left hand into his right hand as he finished his resistance "it makes no change in physical actions."

"That's not my point," Dan shot back before Issak blurted his protest just a millisecond after Dan finished.

"Then what is it Dan? More old world drama? Every representative except for 1 has turned against each other like angry dogs that can't be put on a leash, and the only solution to all this is war and politics."

"Angry dogs huh?" Ran chimed in both seriously and calmly as if an angry aura is about to appear behind her "Then why would local politics be such a concern to all of us, guys?"

Dan and Issak were left silent for a few minutes before Issak began his departure aphorism "Well, the devil knows what's happening out there, beyond Federalist territory. I must go recon the current situation at this moment." He then slowly slid Ran's wooden window pane to the right before he continued "Listen carefully, especially you Ran. If I'm not back here by morning, one of you must get to Saris in the southwest area of Federalist territory and find a woman name Charlotte. Tell her what has happened to me, and what's been stirring in northern Federalist territory."

As he continued he reached into his left pocket and took out his dogtags as he continued "Show this to her, so she knows I've sent one of you. I trust everything to either both of you, Dan and Ran. Don't let me down you two." As a way to leave the choice between both Dan and Ran, he hung his dogtags on the doorknob to Ran's closet next to the window. As he took his G36C with its stock still folded, Issak climbed out from Ran's bedroom and said his last words before sliding off the roof and down on the front of the Eatery "If we are to bring peace, the Communist and the Nazis must be stopped. No matter the cost - eliminated."

Disappearing into the darkness of the streets with Ran and Dan looking out from the window, Ran looked at the dogtags dangling from her closet doorknob before taking the dogtags off her doorknob and inspecting the dogtags. On the dogtags, Ran was left in shock as she read the dogtags that belonged to the name…

_Ichika Orimura..._

-0-

**Author's notes: **_**Thanks for reading, if you guys have something you think I should add in anything into the story please either PM me or leave a review. Until then, farewell.**_


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